MOUNT VESUVIUS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8122, 18 April 1906, Page 3

MOUNT VESUVIUS.

THE ERUP lION OF 1631. A recent cable message declared that the present eruption of Vesuvius is the greatest since that of 1631. eruption of that year was, Indeed, a most appalling one. The volcano had been quiesuent for a hundred acd thirty-one years, during which period it was entirely covered with wood and bushes, like a deer park, and cattle grazed peacefully within the crater, when on Deoember 16th, 16:31, it agaiti became active for the tenth recorded time. This most terrific eruption is also the first of which we possess detailed accounts. "A huge cloud of smoke and usbes, rising in a conioiil form, cast a profound gloom over Naples in the middle of the day," eaye one writer, "and extended with Incredible rapidity over the southern portion of Italy, as far as Tarentum. Heavy stones were thrown to a distance of fifteen miles, while the earth was oouvulsed by violent earthquakes, ami seven streams of lava poured from the summit, overwhelming Bosco, Torre Annunziata, Torre del Greco, Kesiua, and Portioi. No fewer than three eons perished on that